Back to the most glorious moment for the Haitian football. Directly from
Twitter, three spectacular documents showing their celebrations after
winning the 1973 CONCACAF Championship. Thanks to that success, Haiti
qualified for the first and only time to the World Cup.Out of 23
editions of the CONCACAF Championship/Gold Cup, that was also the only
time in which the continental crown was conquered by a Caribbean team.

Guerin Sportivo issue 11 from March 1986
released a long interview with Ettore Trevisan, the Italian assistant
coach who led Haiti to the qualification for the 1974 World Cup.
These are the main points of the interview:“Thanks to my experience as a
footballer and as a coach in the French football, the Italian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited me to become a member of the
technical staff of the Haitian National team. I accepted and, in
1972, I reached the Caribbean country. Although I was officially an
assistant of coach Antoine Tassy, I was the true boss of the National
team. I had a great time there, and I could work with an excellent
group of players. In particular, goalkeeper Henry Françillon,
midfielder Philippe Vorbe and striker Emmanuel Sanon were three
undisputed champions. But all the general technical and physical
level of the whole team was very high. They only lacked tactical
preparation, so that I had to teach their defenders how to head, as
they weren't even able to! Players were all amateur, some were
waiters, some were workers, some were clerks. They only earned 5
Dollars a day. Because of the hot weather, we trained at 6 a.m. in the morning and I
remember very well our 1973 CONCACAF Championship/World Cup
Qualification campaign. Our performances were outstanding, and the
whole country went crazy for us. It was an unbelievable achievement.
But there was also a negative aspect, in fact the “Baby Doc” bloody
dictatorship used our triumph as a propaganda vehicle and could gain
further years of life. Unfortunately, just before the 1974 World Cup,
the FA forced me to resign. The reason was simple: the Haitian
government didn't want to share the merits with a foreign guy like
me. It was all so sad. The World Cup preparation, without me, was
disastrous. The team was settled in cold and humid places in Belgium
and France, in an atmosphere of seclusion. Players suffered and
couldn't express their best. Their only consolation was they were
eliminated along with a famous and great team like Italy.”

Directly from my archive, another interesting document: an interview with one of if not the best player ever expressed by Haiti: Emmanuel "Manno" Sanon.These were his main declarations:"When I was very young and I was called up for my first international appearances, the most experienced players used to treat me like a raw recruit and even forced me to shine their boots...!""We could have qualified for the World Cup also in 1970. We were the strongest ones at that time, but unfortunately we missed the chance in the last stage versus El Salvador.""When we qualified for the first time, the country went crazy. It was in December 1973, and it was a Christmas of delirium.""The night before facing Italy in our 1974 World Cup début, nobody slept because of the stress. But I was able to score a goal to the great Dino Zoff, interrupting his record of invincibility of 1,142 minutes.""At San Diego Sockers, one of my teammates was the great Mexican striker Hugo Sánchez. But we often wrangled - he had a terrible character!"
Source: Guerin Sportivo issue 39 from 1999.

A recent Facebook search made me find two very interesting and rare pictures about the Haitian achievement at the 1973 CONCACAF Championship, the first and only win for a Caribbean country in the continental tournament.

I think the Haitian government should give me a special award for sharing all this stuff
Again from my personal archive, a picture showing the Italian trainer Ettore Trevisan, who was a member of Haiti's coaching staff during their successful World Cup qualifiers in 1973. He was the true strategist of the squad., but he could not participate in the 1974 World Cup beacause of political reasons. The Duvalier regime did not want to share the merits of that achievement with a foreigner and sacked him some weeks before the Cup.
Source: Calcio 2000 issue 50 from 2002.